Macbeth @ Manchester Royal Exchange
October 10, 2019
For about half an hour before the Royal Exchange’s Macbeth started, the atrium of the Royal Exchange was rocked by rumbles and explosions, which became increasingly unsettling as the start time drew near. Christopher Haydon’s production – especially in Elena Peña’s sound design – sought to set up a world rent asunder by war long …
Queen Margaret @ The Royal Exchange, Manchester
September 22, 2018
The idea of rewriting Shakespeare’s first tetralogy to focus on the character of Queen Margaret – the only character to appear alive in all four plays – is a good one, though not original; Charlene Smith’s research has found some twenty-six, with more doubtless to be turned up. Still, it’s rare for one to come …
Hamlet (Royal Exchange) @ The Broadway, Nottingham
March 28, 2015
Watching the Royal Exchange production of Hamlet on the big screen, in a specially recorded film version (still performed in front of an audience, but with a certain amount of editing work to make the most of key images), brought home to me the significance of much of the production’s work. While I enjoyed the …
Hamlet @ The Royal Exchange, Manchester
September 21, 2014
Despite the apparent novelty, Hamlet is perhaps the Shakespearean tragic hero most often played by a woman. As Tony Howard’s excellent book sets out, women have performed the role for more than two centuries, and indeed the finest of all Hamlet films features the superlative Asta Nielsen in the role. Nonetheless, Maxine Peake’s return to …
Edward II @ Manchester Royal Exchange
October 9, 2011
Writing about web page http://www.royalexchange.org.uk/event.aspx?id=435 It’s rare to see a history play specifically relocated in time. While it’s common to see a production that incorporates elements of costume and resonance drawn from across the ages, in order to suggest that the issues presented transcend their historical setting, few directors are prepared to fix a specific …
Doctor Faustus @ Manchester Royal Exchange
October 3, 2010
Writing about web page http://www.royalexchangetheatre.org.uk/event.aspx?id=331 Sitting in the gods at Manchester Royal Exchange provided the perfect perspective for a review of Marlowe’s Faustus. The circular in-the-round stage, engraved with constellations and symbols, became a giant magic circle within which the play’s action took place; and it was to us, gazing from above, that Patrick O’Kane …
Macbeth @ The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester
March 12, 2009
Matthew Dunster’s new production of Macbeth for the Royal Exchange fits neatly into recent fashions regarding the staging of this play. It emphasises the Weird Sisters, bringing them onstage throughout the action, contemporises events and has a particular concern with children, some or all of which were exemplified by the most recent RSC and Chichester …
The Revenger’s Tragedy @ Manchester Royal Exchange
June 12, 2008
There are advantages and disadvantages to seeing two productions of the same play in close proximity to each other. The main advantage, to my mind, is the opportunity to see multiple interpretations of the same text and thereby learn more about the actual text itself, to see through the reading of an individual director to the …
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